Melanie Szydzik

Class action settlements leaped in value last year, with three settlements topping the $200 million mark.

A judge has given the green light to a $31.5 million settlement in a class action brought by junior doctors accusing the ACT government and North Canberra Hospital of failing to pay overtime.

The judge overseeing class actions against Uber has approved a $271.8 million settlement, which includes an $82 million deduction for the funder and $39 million for the firm that ran the cases.

A judge has approved a settlement in a class action against Monsanto under which group members will get nothing, after he rejected claims that the company’s Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic.

Almost 7,000 taxi drivers who did not sign up to two class actions against Uber by the deadline are asking the court for a cut of a $272 million settlement, with a judge questioning what she “unleashed” when sending out the notice of settlement. 

A judge has criticised the pleadings in class actions against ANZ, Macquarie and Westpac over flexible commission schemes for car dealers, saying they were “inappropriate and unhelpful” in referring to documents in the banking royal commission. 

Banks targeted in long-running class actions over flexible commission schemes for car dealers are resisting the plaintiffs’ bid to amend their pleadings to “get around” the defence that certain claims are time-barred.

Deciding an “unusually difficult” costs application, a judge has declined to award Monsanto all of its costs for defending a class action alleging its Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic, saying the agrochemical giant should have pushed harder for a split trial. 

Plaintiff firm Maurice Blackburn will foot the bill for the unsuccessful class action against Monsanto over weed killer Roundup, but the company’s reluctance to split the trial in two has come back to bite it.

A judge has dismissed a class action alleging Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic but did not go so far as to say it definitively does not cause cancer, while also dressing down the lawyers for both sides for causing delays in the case.